The owner of the Lithuanian high-tech group Teltonika has dismissed allegations its products might be reaching Russia via third countries and could be used in the war against Ukraine, saying that he severed all business ties with Russia back in 2022.
The allegations have recently surfaced amid reports of business dissatisfaction with the ban on exporting dual-use goods by air to third countries.
Arvydas Paukštys said Teltonika’s exports to Kazakhstan, through which sanctioned goods could in theory go to Russia, dropped by about 30 percent last year, adding that the group is taking preventive measures there and in other countries to ensure its products are not resold to sanctioned countries.
“I will repeat what I have said before – in 2022, we shut down our representative offices in Russia and Belarus, stopped supplying products, and cut ties with clients from these countries. We were also one of the first businesses in Lithuania to publicly express support for Ukraine, and that support continues to this day,” he said in a comment to BNS on Thursday.
According to the State Data Agency, exports of Lithuanian-origin transmission equipment, including switches and routers, and electrical equipment, including produced by Teltonika, to Russia and Belarus stopped in February 2022, but have increased sharply to Kazakhstan, which is seen as one of the countries that help Russia to circumvent Western sanctions.
In a Facebook post, Jonas Bačelis, a data analyst at the statistics office, shared that Lithuanian companies have exported 3 million euros’ worth of domestically produced routers and switches, 0.6 million euros’ worth of radio navigation receivers, and 6 million euros’ worth of other radio navigation equipment to Kazakhstan since the start of Russia’s invasion to Ukraine.
“I don’t know who makes routers, switches, and radars in Lithuania. But I think it’s Teltonika,” Bačelis said, declining to comment further on the data when asked by BNS.
“In public records, I find that the export of these dual-use goods from Lithuania to Russia stopped in the first quarter of 2022. However, it was fully replaced by a new direction for routers, switches, and radars – Kazakhstan, whose border with Russia is 30 times longer and a million times more permeable,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paukštys said that Teltonika’s office in Kazakhstan, operating since November 2021, covers all Central Asian markets.
“Preliminary figures show that exports to Kazakhstan dropped by about 30 percent in 2024 compared to 2023. We operate there just as we do in any other market – we implement all the necessary preventive measures and check our clients to make sure there is no resale to sanctioned countries,” he said.
The businessman also assured that since the start of the war in Ukraine, he has taken a firm stance and made every effort to ensure that Teltonika’s products do not end up in Russia and cannot be used there.
“As advanced electronics manufacturers, we have done what we know best and introduced technological restrictions into newly released products to make sure our products do not work in Russian and Belarusian territories,” he said.
Paukštys also insisted that Teltonika is the largest sponsor of Ukrainian support organisations in Lithuania, having already donated about 2.5 million euros.
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